Have you heard the tale of Lorelei Belle Winters? No? Well, let me tell it to you, then. I have collected the first part of her life in a story that I call Hell Hath no Fury: an Ice Queen’s Saga. I suppose that I should tell you the basics of what happened to her in that tale. Before I begin that summation, however, I must inform you of certain things that appertain to the proceeding tales.

First and foremost, I shall tell you the tale of Lokrye. It is not a tale to be told simply, nor lightly.

In time out of mind, he had grown powerful and he had grown greedy. He wanted to rule the entire world. The rest of the Titans could not defeat him. The other Titans turned to the humans and Pokemon of this world, and convinced them to join the fight against Lokrye.

But Lokrye had turned some of the Pokemon against

 

Previously on Hell Hath no Fury: an Ice Queen's Saga:

The door closed, and Lorelei sighed in relief as she lowered her schoolbook. That had been close. Just three more days, and she’d be able to get out of
Viridian City.

She’d only have, however, a two-day window in which to go. Her next-door neighbor, was going to be checking on her every day, but would be gone for the first two days of the conference. By her estimation, it would take a day to get to Pewter, she would rest up there, challenge the gym leader, and head for the Johto Border. It would take up the rest of that day to get there

 

+++


Lorelei heard a twig snap behind her. She leaped to her feet and whirled around, her hand snapping out and releasing Sneasel before she dropped down into a defensive position.

“Who’s there?” she demanded, taking a cautious step forward.

A figure formed out of the bushes and came towards her, grinning. Lorelei felt her eyes narrow. It was a human, not a Pokemon. Nobody else knew about places like this. Or, if they did, they didn’t know how to get here. They were too heavily guarded by Pokemon. That meant only one thing. She’d been discovered earlier than she had thought, and they were here to take her back. Well, they wouldn’t get her without a fight, that was for certain. With a yell, she charged forward, felt something cold go up her arm, and somehow found herself on her back, staring up at that grinning face.

Lorelei felt true terror as she realized that she couldn’t move. Not a muscle would work. She opened her mouth to scream, but no words came out. Then the human dissolved into the grinning face of a Gastly. Lorelei felt herself grow colder and colder as the Ghost descended towards her. This was it. She was dead. And there was nothing she could do about it.

+++++

Lorelei stared up at the Gastly that slowly descended upon her. It was little more than a large, spectral blob with a face on it. A large, spectral blob with a face on it that was going to kill her.

Lorelei grimaced. This was just great. Nobody knew where she was, so no help would be forthcoming. Plus, even if she did get out of this, she’d be hours behind schedule. It occurred to her that she could give up now, and forget all about going to Johto. Or about living, for that matter, or she could fight the Gastly with every fiber in her being.

A quick check of her senses revealed that she couldn’t move anything. Then, with sheer force of will, she slowly lifted an arm, and pushed herself to her right. The Gastly seemed to frown, then darted down and, with its long tongue, licked her arm. Instantly, Lorelei could feel numbness lancing out from the location of the lick, and remembered that she had learned from Professor Oak that Pokemon that used the Lick technique actually utilized a variant of several kinds of poison that was absorbed through the skin, and passed through the bloodstream. Some moved through the bloodstream faster than others.

This was, of course, different than the various powder-based poisons, paralyzing agents, and sleeping agents. Those, if she recalled correctly, were inhaled through the respiratory tract, and then absorbed into the bloodstream.

She groaned. Sometimes, ignorance was better than knowing exactly how things happened in battles. Because if you were ignorant of how things worked, you wouldn’t be able to imagine it happening. Slowly. Painfully. Cell by agonizing cell.

The Gastly hovered several feet away, watching her amusedly. It stared at her, licking whatever it had for lips, and then moved forward in short, agonizingly taunting jaunts. Then, it rose up, moved back slightly, then came about smartly. It hovered in the air, grinning at her wickedly, and then came in, slowly, for the kill.

Then, out of nowhere, an Ice Beam stabbed through its innards, and passed through the other side, freezing a good deal of whatever kind of gases made up the Gastly, but not enough to freeze it completely.

Growling softly, the Gastly stopped its forward motion, pivoted along its horizontal axis, and, through its spectral innards, Lorelei could see the tell-tale glow of the Gastly’s eyes as it used its Hypnosis Technique.

Lorelei felt her brain begin to shut down from the Paralyzing Poison, and black began creeping in at the edge of her vision. She wasn’t sure if it was supposed to have thiskind of effect, but then, it was usually used on Pokemon, not humans, wasn’t it.

She could hear the sounds of a Pokemon battle off to one side, and watched as the Gastly disappeared out of her vision. Whatever Pokemon her savior was, she kenw that it couldn’t possibly hold out for long. That gastly was nearly ready for evoltion into a Haunter, if her time with the Pokemon Professors Antonio Silph and Oak had taught her anything at all about such things. She couldn’t hear a trainer barking out orders, so Gastly’s opponent had to be either wild, or…or the Sneasel she had brought with her to start her on her journey. Her eyes narrowed. If it really was herSneasel, there was no way that she would let anything happen to it.

Her eyes narrowed. How could she get rid of this paralysis? It was far more potent for a human than it was for a Pokemon. She didn’t have anything to counter the paralysis poison….or did she? Suddenly, her muddled mind remembered she had PRZ Heals in her backpack. They hadn’t been approved for humans, though. On the other hand, however, the paralyzation poison generally wasn’t used on humans, either. And the PRZ Heal HAD been specially formulated to counter this and other strains of paralyzation poisons as well.

Lorelei’s eyes widened as she realized what she needed to do. She needed to get one of her PRZ Heals, and inject it into her bloodstream. She nearly panicked when she thought of this, but then remembered the healing supplies in her Pokeball Belt.

From what she could hear of the Pokemon Battle, the Pokemon attacking the Gastly was losing. She tried to remember if she had put any PRZ Heals into the leather pouches on the Pokeball Belt that she had modified. With horror, she realized that she couldn’t remember anymore if she had put any in there. She narrowed her eyes and realized that she’d need to pump them into herself at random.

That meant taking the risk of them being Potions, SLP Heals, BRN Heals, or FRZ Heals. She took a deep breath, and struggled to open the first leather pouch, and jabbed it against her skin. There was a quick hiss as the liquid inside metabolized itself into her bloodstream. She felt extremely warm in the leg that she had jabbed whatever it was into her system, then it spread throughout her entire body.

Lorelei grimaced as she became warmer and warmer, andshe realized that it must have been a FRZ Heal. Sweating profusely despite the relatively cool temperature, she flipped open the next pouch, and jabbed the container into her thigh. A thin, rushing sensation of coolness pervaded her body, and Lorelei realized, to her abject relief, that she had just given herself a BRN Heal.

Lorelei fumbled with the third pouch, and somehow managed to get whatever it was out and pressed against her leg. Lorelei could feel her control slipping quickly. The blackness that had been pressing against the edges of her vision had now consumed almost all of it. The muzziness that had enveloped her thoughts was now almost overwhelming. With the last vestiges of willpower, she pressed the button that would send whatever it was roaring through her veins.

And then, moments later, she lost consciousness.

+++++

When she awoke again, her first thoughts were that she was dead, and the figure leaning over her was saying that she’d flunked a test, and she wouldn’t be passing through the pearly gates anytime soon.

But then, slowly, her vision began to focus. Very slowly. Lorelei groaned and lifted a hand to her forehead. It felt like it weighed thirty tons, but she couldn’t care less about it. She had a headache that felt like a Snorlax had sat on her head, every inch of her body ached, and someone had to have a tape recorder and playing feedback. Constantly. Unceasingly. Without end. About how often “The bells” was repeated in the poem “The Bells”

Then she remembered seeing somebody above her. She groaned, and forced her eyes to focus. “Easy,” the voice said, “Easy. You’re in pretty bad shape, if what I’ve been able to tell has been right. Did you take all three of those?” the boy asked, pointing at three discarded containers that held the Silph company logo on them.

Lorelei felt herself losing her center of gravity, and reached an arm out to steady herself, but she learned that she still wasn’t strong enough to support her own weight, and that the ground wasn’t as soft as some people would make it out to be.

“Whoa,” the boy said, “Take it easy. You’ve been through quite the ordeal, what with all the Dream Eaters that Haunter used.” Lorelei thought dimly somewhere in the back of her mind that if she were one hundred percent, she’d be excited about a guy being this concerned about her, “And all those Confuse Rays? No wonder you’re like this.”

Lorelei felt anger slush through her, like it knew where it was going, but somehow couldn’t make it. “Where is it?” she demanded weakly, spread-eagled on her back in the middle of
Viridian Forest, “I’ll kill it.”

The boy chuckled. “That’d be pretty hard to do, since it’s already a ghost.”

Lorelei frowned, and felt herself slipping away from consciousness once more, “That’s never stopped me before,” she muttered, and fell, into a deep and dreamless sleep.

+++++

Lorelei groaned, and put a hand to her head. For a moment, she wondered if she had loaned her head to some sports team to use at a charity event, and had just now gotten back to her, but then she remembered what had happened Then she remembered. She had to get to Johto!

She sat up quickly, and her head pounded even more—if that were possible. She glanced around, and saw that she was in a plain room. There wasn’t much in it, except for the bed. But there was one smell that could never quite be gotten rid of. The tell-tale chemicals of a Pokemon Prof’s lab. Lorelei groaned, lifted the covers to make sure she was still dressed, got out of bed, and staggered to the door. Somebody had probably taken her to
Pallet Town. It as probably that stupid boy. If she ever got ahold of him—

She opened the door, and gawked openly. On the other side were the usual trappings, machinations, and devices that were frequent to a Pokemon Professor’s laboratory, but the thing that set it apart from every other one was the fact that none other than Professor Martin J. Elm was working diligently with his aides. On what, Lorelei didn’t know and, frankly, she didn’t care that much.

All she wanted to know was how she had gotten from midway between
Viridian City and Pewter city in Kanto, across the most dangerous parts of the Viridian Forest, into Johto, and into New Bark Town. Unless Elm was in Pallet Town.

“She’s awake!” a familiar voice exclaimed from behind her. She whirled around, though she had to reach out a hand to grab at a nearby table to steady herself, and saw the boy that had been in the forest with her. “Finally. Took you long enough.” Lorelei looked at him, a puzzled expression on her face. He grinned, “You were out for a while.”

Lorelei felt her heart sink. A while? This would seriously put a damper on her plans. All because of one stupid Gastly. “How—“ she began, and stopped when pain seared through her brain, “How long was I out?” she asked weakly.

“Just over a week,” the boy said, “I talked to your parents. They said that they didn’t give you permission to start your journey, but you were signed up with the Johto League with their signatures. And, since you were technically in Johto by then, they had no legal jurisdiction over you.”

Lorelei grimaced, putting the hand not supporting herself up to her forehead. She briefly remembered forging her parents’ signature on the registration forms, but what he didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him. “Huh,” she replied. “So I’m, where
New Bark Town?” she asked.

The boy grinned, “Nope, Blackthorne. Elm’s got a secondary laboratory here, and he’s checking up on some of his protégés.” The dark-skinned boy glanced past her into the room, “I was on my way here, and I brought you with me. Not as if I could really turn back if I wanted to keep my appointment.”

Lorelei frowned, and shook her head to clear a slight buzzing, “Appointment?” she asked, “For what?”

“Ah!” a cheerful voice exclaimed from behind her, “Mr. Slate. How good of you to come. With your input, I’ve managed to stabilize the DNA.” Lorelei turned around to see Professor Elm, his normally immaculate black hair a Rattata’s nest. His juvenile-like bright eyes shining with excitement. “We’ve found a way to stabilize the DNA enough that we think that the next litter of Vulithe will be able to evolve. We’ve even been able to build a computer simulation of the evolution. We’re dubbing it the Artail!”

The dark-skinned boy grinned, although his eyes still remained shut. Did they ever open? “That’s great, Professor! I have a feeling that Pyro has been wanting to evolve for a while. I’ve tried to tell her that it’s not possible, but she doesn’t seem to listen.” Brock grinned, “She’s a spunky little thing.”

Lorelei, who had been leaning against the wall beside the door, out of Elm’s direct eyesight coughed. “Am I invisible?” she demanded, “Or am I just alone, here?”

Elm jumped a good three inches into the air, and spun around, his glasses falling off of his nose, and his eyes darted about wildly, then he spotted her. “Ah,” he said, “The mystery girl. Lorelei Belle Winters, four-time champion of the Allnian National Tournament; one of the heirs to the Winters fortune; and the terror of
Viridian City, I presume?”

The boy’s eyes widened, and for a second Lorelei thought they’d pop right out of his head. Lorelei sighed, “Look, all I did was beat up five kids for picking on me, and they gave me that nickname.”

Elm raised an eyebrow. “Yes, except they were all members of Team Rocket, and they all had at least one Pokemon.” Lorelei’s eyes narrowed at him, but he continued, “And then there were that pair that they sent after you. Butch and Cassidy, wasn’t it?” he grinned, “Last I heard, they were going to be getting out of the hospital in a week.” He grinned, “I’m sure even Brock here’s heard of you.”

Lorelei pursed her lips, “Are you done, yet?” she asked, ignoring the open-mouthed kid he’d called Brock, “Because if you are, I’ll just take my Sneasel and get out of here.”

Elm’s eyes lit up, “Ah, yes. Your Sneasel. It’s from the Gerantal bloodline, isn’t it?” Lorelei raised an eyebrow, “The entire line has a fascinating genomic pattern. Their ice-type moves are unusually strong, even for an Ice type.”

Lorelei stared at him, dead-panned, “Are you done?” she asked blankly. “I’d kind of like to get out of here.”

Elm nodded, “Why, yes, I think I am. Unless you would like to be one of the next stewards of one of the Vulithes that I’ve bred. Have you heard of them?”

Lorelei nodded slowly, “It was on the front page of the Viridian City Paper yester-“ she caught herself, “about a week ago.” She finished.

Elm nodded, “Then you must know that I’ve been giving them out to trainers for a week at a time. Brock, here, just returned his Vulithe, so we’ll have to keep it under observation for at least three days. However, I have a Vulithe down in
Pallet Town that I could let you have. For the standard week, of course.”

Lorelei raised an eyebrow, “It doesn’t bother you that I nearly got killed by a Gastly?” she asked cautiously, knowing that this was a chance of a lifetime, “doesn’t it bother you that I might get killed, and it might die with me?”

Johto’s Pokemon Professor frowned. “Gastly?” he asked, “Brock told me that it was a Haunter. I wouldn’t expect your Sneasel to be able to do anything against something like that. That was probably why it was fainted when he found the two of you.”

Myabe it evolved after it fainted your Sneasel,” Brock offered, and the two turned to look at him. “It’s just a possibility.”

Elm nodded, “that is indeed what appears to have happened..” He turned back to Lorelei, “And no, it doesn’t bother me at all. In fact, with your infamy, I’d be honored to have you safeguard one of my special Pokemon. It might just give me a little extra publicity. Brock, you had better run if you want to catch that Breeder’s Conference in
Azalea Town.”

Brock nodded, “Right,” he said, “You two will be able to get to
New Bark Town without me. I’ve got to grab a few things in Goldenrod, anyway. I better run.” He grinned again, nodded, and darted out the door.

Elm turned to Lorelei, “So,” he inquired eagerly, “what do you say, will you take the Vulithe?”

Lorelei shrugged, “Yeah,” she said, a faint smile on her face, “Why not? It’ll give me something to do.”

Elm rubbed his hands together, “Excellent!” he exclaimed, “Then onwards to New Bark Town!”

+++++

Lorelei groaned, “Are we there yet?” she demanded, hurrying to catch up with the surprisingly spry Professor Elm, “I don’t see why we had to go out into the woods so you could check on that Sandshrew nest. I’m tired, I’m sore. I’m thirsty. I got scratched up back there when I tried to capture one of them. How much longer?” she demanded.

“It will seem longer,” Elm admonished in a frustrated tone, “The more times that you ask how much longer it will be! And I told you not to try to capture them. It’s your fault you became injured.”

“’It’s your fault you became injured,’” Lorelei parroted back, “What does that mean? You should have told me that the Sandslash nest was right next to the Sandshrew nest!”

Elm sighed, “I ASSUMED that you knew that Sandslash was the evolution of Sandshrew, and because Sandshrew are the offspring of Sandslash, you would know that the Sandslash nest would be near the Sandshrew nest!”

Lorelei glared at him, “Yeah,” she muttered, “Whatever.” She glared at him, and was about to quip another cutting remark when the woods suddenly parted, and they stepped from Route 29 and into
New Bark Town.

The view took her breath away. While she was used to big cities, and had become accustomed to small cities, she still wasn’t prepared for what she saw.

New
Bark Town was little more than a hamlet, with four rows of houses, a small airstrip at the opposite end of town, and several essential buildings such as a Pokemon Center, Fire Department, and Global Police Station formed the perimeter of the small town. The entire town was filled with trees, both young and old, of many different kinds. “it’s beautiful,” Lorelei breathed.

Elm chuckled, “Yeah, I guess it is. I’m kind of used to it, though, so it doesn’t affect me like most people did. It’s a better place to live than Goldenrod, though,” he remarked, grinning, “Too many people there. Can’t get a lot of breathing room. People around here are good, neighborly, and accept you no matter what.” He looked at Lorelei slyly, and added. "Well, at least me." Elm smiled contentedly. “Well, come on, now. You said that you wanted a Vulithe, so let’s get to the lab and get you set up.”

+++++

Lorelei looked around the lab as she entered. It was big. Much larger than the one that Professor Silph had had when she had been living in Alto, yet not quite as big as Oak’s had been when they had gone there for his annual Christmas Parties. Still, it was quite spacious. And, if this was as big as it looked from outside, this part was just the public laboratory, and Elm’s private lab was in the back. If this was anything like Oak’s lab, he probably lived here, too.

Professor Elm deftly made his way through the crush of adults who were all screaming and waving papers at him by smiling and saying something that was drowned out by the screaming to them. Lorelei shook her head. If this was anything like what happened at Oak’s place, this was the day before Elm gave out Pokemon.

A sudden chill swept through her as she realized that unless she wanted all the good Pokémon to be scared away by little kids, she would have to get moving as fast as she could. Some of those kids could really move. And they made a lot of noise. In fact, Pokémon from all over the area were probably running away as quickly as they could.

Lorelei tried to look over the crowd, but wasn’t quite able to. She’d lost Professor Elm, and with this many people crammed into his lab, all shouting at once, it would be nearly impossible to find him.

Suddenly, Lorelei felt a tap on her shoulder, and saw a parent standing there. “Hi!” she shouted, “Sorry to interrupt whatever you were doing, but my daughter, Maya recognized you from the old Alnnian Tournaments, and wants to have your autograph!”

Lorelei stood there in shock for a moment, not quite believing that anyone would remember her, then smiled, “Sure!” she shouted, “What do you want me to sign?”

The mother smiled and pushed forward a ten-year old girl. Lorelei forced herself not to grimace. While she probably didn’t have sticky fingers anymore, she still didn’t like little kids. “Here!” the kid said, thrusting a Pokeball in her face, “This is going to be my starter as soon as Mom finishes registering me!”

Lorelei smiled weakly and took the Pokeball from the kid, as well as a proffered permanent marker, and quickly wrote her name around the white section of the Pokeball. Lorelei handed the Pokeball back to the girl, and smiled quickly before turning back to look for Professor Elm.

Just at that moment, Elm appeared, smiling apologetically, “I’m sorry!” he shouted, “But one of my aides gave the Vulithe to a Hoenner that was passing through. I’ll give you Brock’s Vulithe. It’ll take a few days to get everything in order, though!”

Lorelei smiled, and quickly turned to get away from the lab. As the doors closed behind her, she took a deep breath. Finally, some peace and quiet. Now she’d be able to get started on her journey. With a bounce in her step, she walked towards the
Pokemon Center.

+++++

Lorelei smiled and thanked one of the the eternally too-jubilant Nurse Joy sisters, and turned for the door, to be greeted by a sight that would haunt her for four days.

“There she is!” exclaimed the kid whose Pokeball she had signed. Behind her were four kids, young kids, that all looked at her eagerly, wearing what appeared to be those Official Lorelei Fan Club T-shirts she’d managed to get recalled, although not before several hundred of them had been sold in Kanto and, she realized with a sinking stomach, Johto.

Then the moment was over, and the five kids rushed towards her. With a nimble turn and a swift leap, she was over the counter and running through the back door before the Nurse Joy could stop her. She was in a hallway, and there were three doors. One, an exit, was too far away for her to make. The other two were partway down the corridor. One was open, one was closed.

Lorelei ran down the hallway, turned the doorknob on the closed door, booted it open, and darted through the previously open door. The kids, seeing the newly opened door moving, ran through the door, screaming, and as soon as the last one of them was in, Lorelei darted back out into the hallway, slammed the door closed, and ran through the exit.

THAT had been a close one.

+++++

Lorelei found herself jogging down the path, glancing back over her shoulder at
New Bark Town, now several miles distant, and almost convinced herself that she saw little children darting through the shadows.

She shook her head. That was insane. That kid wouldn’t be able to officially start until the next day, and by that time, Lorelei would be in
Violet City. Lorelei smiled uneasily to herself and turned her attention forwards. Catching the slight movement just in time, she stopped herself abruptly, and a white web shot past by where her head would have been if she hadn’t stopped just then.

Lorelei snapped the Pokeball out of its holder, and flicked it into the air. Her Sneasel appeared, and landed in a fighting pose, mirroring the one that its trainer had just dropped into.

From all around her, Lorelei could hear chittering, like some kind of insect. Some kind of big insect. From the woods in front of her, Lorelei saw an Ariados step into the path, and take a challenging step forward. From all sides, Lorelei saw and heard Spinarak climbing onto the path, staring at her with their unblinking eyes.

She growled for a moment. Why couldn’t she have a normal journey, where Pokemon were rare, and didn’t want you for their next meal every single battle? She took a deep breath, and realized that she herself would have to fight if she wanted to get out of this one. A quick glance around her revealed that there were no fewer than fifteen bugs waiting for her to make the first move, not including the Ariados.

“I’m screwed,” she muttered, and smiled tightly as she remembered that her hero, Devon Harding, had died in battle as well. “’course,” she chuckled to herself, “That battle wasn’t because she was running away from a bunch of kids with a rookie Sneasel.” Her Sneasel whipped its head around and bared its tiny teeth at her. “No offense,” she said, grinning. “This is going to be fun. If they don’t kill us, first.”